I am considering the Galapagos as my next holiday but can't decide whether to book my itinerary as land or boat based!

I'm considering either SEGL for land or EV10MA for boat.

For those of you who have done G's land based itinerary (Land Galapagos Multi Activity, SEGL), did you enjoy the itinerary and feel you got to see a lot of the islands? What was the speedboat like - the itinerary warns readers that anti nausea meds may be needed given the ride? Was the speedboat as ominous as suggested? Is it covered, exposed? Normal seats, or benches? Did you feel like a lot of time was "wasted" traveling in the speedboat to islands and returning, or a good experience?

Was the tour to Isabela, which is normally not done in the boat trips, worth it? I like the idea of hiking around the volcano which is why the land trip appeals.

For those of you who opted to do a boat based tour, what was the boat like for sleeping at night? Sea legs?

Do a search for "Which Galapagos Tour". There was a detailed thread on this dated Oct. 31, 2012.

Sleeping on the boat was OK, mostly. Yes, since the boats travel at night there is motor noise and the sound of the anchor dropping. But, I had no problem and I'm a light sleeper. As for seasickness issues.. much of that is individual. I successfully used the "patch". Pricy, but had no quesyness.

I did the catamaran boat tour and then added on the Isabela Island extension and had an absolutely amazing time. I don't think I would give up either one. If I had to choose I would choose the boat tour because we were in the water snorkelling a lot as well as the islands we visited (which pretty much the same as the tour you mentioned). On Isabela I walked up the Sierra Negra volcano and it was great, just be ready to get really dirty as it is very dusty.I have been really lucky not to have been sea sick. No one on the boat tour complained about being sick, but some said they had trouble sleeping some nights. On the high speed boat trip from Santa Cruz to Isabela you do feel the roughness of the water more as well as the pressure from the speed of the boat. On my way back from Isabela there was someone sick over the side.

Did a boat tour a couple of years ago (January). They said the water was unusually rough. I was the only one who didn't get ill. A couple of nights were pretty awful, impossible to walk around safely, hard to even keep from falling out of bed. It was a spectacular trip nonetheless and the degree of roughness is reportedly not typical.